Fairway Solitaire Cheats
I’ve been getting lots of emails about how to cheat on Fairway Solitaire because some of the end courses are really tough. There are no in-game cheats at all I’m afraid – they were all removed in the final version. However, it is possible to modify one of the data files to make the tough courses easier as follows (Windows XP):
- Go to your C Drive via My Computer
- Go to Program Files\Fairway Solitaire
- Go into Data\Levels
- Make a backup copy of CourseList.csv somewhere safe.
- Right Click CourseList.csv and click Open with WordPad or NotePad (if you are using Windows Vista you need to open it with Adminstrator privileges)
- Find the course AFTER the one you are stuck on
- If you are modifying Joe’s Gas and Golf – find where it says SCORE,-1 and change -1 to something much easier like 20
- If you are modifying Mystery Madness – find where it says TOKENS,25000 and change 25000 to something much easier like 1000
- Save the file.
- Run the game and check the course goal, it should have changed.
- Tada!
The courses mentioned in the cheats are only really hard in V1.01 of the game. They are easier in V1.02 and higher. Please note that it is not possible to cheat on the last course: The Baron. Also there are no cheats for the Mac version.
Hope this helps you out, and thanks for playing the game so far!
Mac
It is possible to adjust the data files using the above technique on the Mac version shipped by BFG, but it requires a little “hacking”. The problem is that the data folder is a hidden folder, and it’s inside the application bundle. So once you get inside the application bundle you need to tell Finder to be able to view hidden folders so that you can locate the data folder. However, I cannot tell you how to do that because BFG would not be happy if I said how to hack their Mac wrapper. If you googled for the information you might succeed…but it’s probably easier to just try to beat the level 
January 27th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Thanks for the tips. Do you mind if we post your cheats on casualgameguides if we link to your blog?
January 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am
You are welcome Jason. I spoke to BFG and they weren’t ultra keen on the cheats being spread as they prefer “walkthroughs” rather than all our cheats like this. So if you can please NOT post them (but by all means link to this blog), that would be great thx.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Hello.
You can cheat on the last course, just go to the map courses and open the baron, the 1ste numbers you see is the amount of strikes you needed to play par, just ad something like 27 more so 60 becomes 87 for instance.
And then go to the map holes en open one by one the the holes from baron 1/9 and change the figure below hole, for instance make 5 an 8, just ad 3 to all holes so you became 27 in total. This will make it a lot easier to win the game.
Just look out you don’t ad to much because otherwise the game crashes, but you are still able to start where you crashed though.
I think the crash is because when you overad like a hole with par 4 you make a par 12 and you manage to complete the hole in 5 then he does not have the graphics for that because i think you can not do better the triple eagles, and 1 par 5 at a course that is par 12 is much more then triple eagle.
You can change the pars on every hole this way.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:44 am
Wow good tip! I hadn’t even thought of that (it’s been so long since I programmed the reading of those files). Yeah basically the game has graphics for 1 to 4 under par (Birdie, Eagle, Double Eagle, Triple Eagle) and graphics for Perfect (can be 3,4, or 5 under par depending on the hole). So if you score 5 or more under par and it’s NOT perfect, the game will crash. For example you should be able to score 12 under par, providing it’s Perfect, but anything from 5 to 11 under par will be a crash.
Anyway, The Baron is not too hard, it can be done with the right clubs and some careful play.
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
One thing i don’t understand, in the map holes are only the holes for about 30 courses a lot of the courses are not situated in that map, so i am curious to know where the data is for the missing courses.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
Each course file contains a list of hole files that are used for the course. Sometimes the names are not the same and some are reused.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:33 am
I recently bought this game through Big Fish. The version is 1.1. How do I update it to 1.2 without losing my progress? Thanks in advance.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Hi Chris. Big Fish Games don’t have 1.2 online yet, although I think it will be happening soon. The three courses that were made easier were:
Cherry Lakes
Joe’s Gas ‘n’ Golf
Mystery Madness
If you get stuck on one of those before they release a V1.2 update (I’ll post news about it in this thread), then email me and I’ll send you a new data file or just try the cheat mentioned above.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I’m curious about how to win the Scoring Cup Trophy. It’s supposed to be awarded for “the first time you score 9 or lower on a course”. I’ve scored as low as -30 but haven’t won the trophy yet.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Ah yes, to win the scoring cup your total score for the course needs to be 9 or lower, not your To Par. So that means you only left 9 or less cards on all the holes. I’d have thought that -30 would be enough to do it on some courses though…Anyway, keep an eye on your Score not To Par (on the Score Card) to see if you are close to winning this trophy.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Love this game … very addictive! I won my Scoring Cup [I scored exactly 9 and was -28] … Thanks for your help.
One more question ….
I noticed that my name seems to have disappeared from the top scores list for all the courses except for the very last course I played. All the other top scores belong to phoney names [?] and they all have the same date and time stamp. I was hoping to go replay some courses and try to beat a few of my previous scores.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Great, glad you won the scoring cup!
That’s very strange about the top scores list. That scores list is created once, when you first run the game (what date is on your list?) and then gradually your scores get added into it. It shouldn’t get refilled with the names of BFG staff at all. Did anything unusual happen to your system or the game (did you reinstall it)? Unfortunately they may be lost now, but I don’t know why.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I figured it out … I play on 2 computers and transferred my saved files to another PC (which worked fine), but failed to copy the best.dat file. All my data shows up now.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Cool, glad you figured it out and it wasn’t a bug!
April 16th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Hello. I wanted to start all over again because i made some adjustments on the courses so i uninstalled the game en installed it again, the only thing is that all my aliasses i used are still visible in the scorecards from the courses so to beat those scores is almost impossible if i play with the standard configuration. Is this somewehere stored on the pc and did not remove when i uninstall the game ?
Thanks in advance.
greetings
April 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Hi Leendert, (sorry for the delay in replying, I’ve been away for a week). If you are using XP, go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire\ and delete best.dat or if you are using Vista go to C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire\ and delete best.dat
This should remove the best scores and the game will reset them to “random” ones.
April 20th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Thanks for your reply, that solved the problem.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I have Fairway Solitaire for Mac, and like others, I’m stuck on Mystery Madness. I’ve played that course over 20 times, and nothing. I tried starting with a bag full of clubs many times, but I still can’t win. I’ve come within a few hundred dollars of the goal on at least five occasions, but sill nothing. I’ve enjoyed the game until now, but this is ridiculous. How do I get past this course?
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Hi alphadog, I’m sorry that you are finding it hard but the Mac version is a bit easier than the early PC version on Mystery Madness and it is possible with the right tactics and a bit of luck (plus you must have all the clothing items).
The cheats on this page only work for PC I’m afraid, there are no equivalent cheats for the Mac version.
By the way, if you ever get stuck on Mystery Madness hole 4 where the bottom card on the far right column does not turn over (it says “invalid”), try clicking on the very lowest part of the card which does not overlap the middle card and it should turn over.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’ve played the same course eight more times with no luck. Do you have any tactical suggestions? I’ve got all the clothing and start out with a full bag of clubs. Is there a distinct pattern to follow? I can’t seem to find one.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
There were some great tips on GameZebo but they’ve had a recent site redesign and I can’t find them any more!
As you may know, “Golf” is a type of solitaire (it’s listed on Wikipedia) and it has its own tactics. Then there’s extra tactics for Fairway Solitaire due to the sand traps, water hazards and irons.
- With the irons, try only using them towards the end of a hole so that you can get under par as this gives you a big bonus which increases even more if you have a good multiplier. Save them for holes where it’s more likely you’ll get perfect.
- Don’t forget that irons can be used to a) keep a run going for longer by jumping it to a totally new value, or b) start off a brand new run.
- Memorise where all the sand wedges are and uncover them as soon as possible unless it adversely affects a long run.
- Remove water cards as soon as possible (but not if it means halting a good run elsewhere) – use your judgement.
- Try to beat the mini-games for more bonus which is multiplied up.
- If a course is going badly, you can just exit to the title screen and when you click play, do not resume, go and restart the course instead. This will save you time as you won’t have to complete courses that have gone bad.
- Use the X-ray specs wisely to decide on your next action.
- Use the mulligan tactically. If you are not sure which of two cards will yield the best result (i.e what’s under it), click one, then if it’s no good, mulligan it and click the other. You can even mulligan a 2nd time and go back to the first choice!
Some general “golf” solitaire tactics:
- Study the face up cards carefully (take your time) and make no mistakes. It’s fun to rapidly click away but you can make mistakes due to not having seen the card which is flipping over whilst you are busy clicking another one…
- If you have choice between clicking a card on a stack or one on it’s own, always click the one on the stack to free up the one underneath. Clean up single cards at the end.
- If you have a choice between uncovering one card or two cards, clearly you need to uncover two cards (unless you can see them both and they are not much use right now and the single card is face down – it’s sometimes worth the gamble to reveal the single card).
- Try to remember which runs you’ve had already as the chances of getting similar ones later are reduced because you’ve used up those cards – so you can take your future runs in a different direction instead!
- Try to keep your runs more flat than sloped. What I mean is try to go 2,3,2,1,2,3,4,3,4,5 etc instead of just 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 etc. This helps to clean up similar cards so that you don’t have to go back to them later for small runs, and it gives you bigger runs.
I hope some of these tips help. If anyone has more, please post them!
Thanks.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Love this game! Any word on that v.1.2 yet?
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Thanks Corona. You can tell what version you have by looking at the flag on the logo on the title screen. BFG should have V1.03 or V1.04 live now so you just need to download it again (not sure how that works, you may need to ask their support people), but it won’t overwrite any saved games, just the game .exe and level data. Reflexive had V1.02 from the start.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:14 am
Hello.
After a few months i still love playing this game, and not only me, for me it is surely one of the top 5 games ever.
I was wondering is there something i can do so i can add more users, for now you can only have 7 users at the same time in the playerslist, but at my work it should be great if 10 or more different players can be in the playerslist.
Thanks for the game again.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Wow, thanks. Glad you like it so much. I’m afraid the list is limited to 7 users only. You could always copy out some of the users from the Profiles folder to make room and put them back in when those players want to play. Bit long winded but if you made a shortcut to that folder it would be doable.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hi I just finished all the courses in Fairway including Mystery Madness (which was really tough until I began to see a pattern). This was a great game experience and I hope there will be sequels . I’m 60 years young and really enjoyed this game (by the way I played it on a Mac). Thanks to all and tell Big Fish Games more like this would be great.
Best regards,
Stevo!
July 5th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Thanks Stevo, glad you liked it! It was tough at the end but it’s cool that you beat it. I hoped you liked the game finished animation
July 5th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Yes, I really like the ending animation and music a lot! Is there a way to save that for replay? Actually I enjoyed the animation throughout the game including the pesky gopher and that worm that would appear. You really did a great job!
Best regards,
Stevo
July 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Sorry, there’s no way to replay it other than beating the Baron again. I love the animation on the wildcards too. Yep, our team did a good job and we are proud. We are hoping it will win the Zeebys award for best card/mahjong game of 2007.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Hi, My wife has played this game for months and absolutely loves it,However i am about to set up a shiny new pc and was wondering how to move the save file for this game,I have searched all through the drives for it and can’t find it.
Any help much appreciated.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Hi Dan, the files are in a hidden folder whose location depends on which OS you are running. In XP the path is: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire and in Vista the path is C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire. If you don’t know how to show hidden files and folders, just google for it, it’s nice and easy
Good luck.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thank you very much,Will try that.Thanks again.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Fairway Solitaire was the most addictive game I’ve played since my first PC and game, Canasta, 13 years ago. I played it 88 hours over 2 1/2 weeks to finish it, then another 10 days to get the last 3 trophies just now completed. BIG FUN!! Thank-you and Cheers, Bill
July 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Excellent, thanks Bill! Sounds like you had a full-time job completing that game; I guess it was good value for money then
July 28th, 2008 at 4:12 am
I just purchased Fairway Solitaire from BFG in early July. My version is 1.01, according to the little flag in the menu screen. Isn’t there supposed to be a version 1.02 or 1.03 available? I have a pc with Windows xp. How may I obtain the latest version? Thanks!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Hi, yes there should even be a V1.04 available. I thought they would have put it online by now, I’ll ask them about it.
OK just checked and indeed 1.01 is still online, weird, I’ll ask them to update it ASAP.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Any word on the update? Also, does the game itself check for updates?
August 18th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I’ll ask them Michael. The game doesn’t auto-update (portal games don’t because they aren’t allowed to connect to the Internet).
August 18th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Yes it’s live! V1.04 is up. Download it now and try it out. You won’t loose your save games. Probably you have to uninstall your current version and then download the new version (and enter your licence key info again). Unless there is a simpler way to update the game via the BFG launcher, but I’m not sure about that…
August 19th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Very good, thank you. It seems to load faster as well.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I’ve been playing the game since the day it game out. I’m about 3 or 4 courses AWAY FROM THE LAST (BARON). I bought a New PC. How do I transfer my scores and data from my old PC??? Where is this info located? Please … Anybody … Help … I don’t wat to have to start all over!!!!!
August 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am
It depends if you have Vista or XP…
On XP the data is located in: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire
On Vista the data is located in: C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire
Basically you need to copy everything in the Fairway Solitaire folder to the new PC.
It’s worth noting that on XP the Application Data folder is hidden and to make it visible you have to click Tools/Folder Options/View and then click “show hidden files and folders”. On Vista Program Data is hidden and you need to make it visible by clicking Organise/Folder Options/ then untick “Hide protected operating system files”.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:14 am
My wife and I have both played on two computers for quite a while completing all courses (v1.02) many times, just thinking about the cheats you mentioned, of course you can always work them the other way as well and make all the courses a little harder. Think I will try this and make it “challenging”
August 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Haha, absolutely Greg! You could change all the courses so that you need more money, or better score, or longer drivers, or more perfects quite easily. V1.02 was slightly easier on three courses near the end (Joe’s Gas and Golf, Mystery Madness and one other I think) because so many people found them hard on V1.01.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I love this game, but I am stuck on Buffington Nine! I have been playing it for days and I cannot get a 22 drive (although I have been able to get that high before). I keep hoping that it will just pass me to the next round out of default from trying so much. Am I missing something?? I’ve tried using irons and other tips on this website, but to no avail. HELP!
September 14th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Hi Lisa, sorry to hear you are stuck. I should be possible to get through using a full set of irons, wait until you get a good run and then keep it going with irons. Have you tried the cheats (editing the files) mentioned in the article? You could reduce the drive to say 10 to pass…
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
By the way, here’s the fixes to Fairway Solitaire since V1.01 was released:
V1.02
Made the following courses easier:
– Cherry Lakes (Goal was Score -1, is now Score +5)
– Joe’s Gas n Golf (Goal was Score – 1, is now Score +10)
– Mystery Madness (Goal was Tokens 25000, but is now Tokens 24500)
V1.03 was the Localised version and contained no fixes.
V1.04
– Fixed issue on Mystery Madness Hole 4
October 26th, 2008 at 2:02 am
This would be a great game except for one feature- the “Wild Shot”. Is there any way to deactivate this feature, perhaps by modifying some setting in the program files (I have xp) in a similar fashion to what you mentioned above? Or to decrease the odds of it coming up in the deck (something like 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 would be nice!). I can’t speak for anyone else, but I play games to RELAX and enjoy, not to get frustrated and uptight! I hate to feel like throwing my computer out the window when my goal was simply some amusement after a long work day! Any help would be appreciated!
October 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Hi Dave, I’m sorry that you don’t like the wildshot, we added for some variety and fun in the gameplay. Unfortunately there is no way to turn it off. If we ever make a sequel perhaps we will consider that as an option.
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 am
When I was in the files that you mentioned above (in order to change the required values for progressing to subsequent levels), I noticed several files that pertain to ‘Wild Shot’. Isn’t there some value that could be changed that would cause ‘Wild Shot’ to appear less frequently?
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 am
Hi Dave, sorry for the delay, I was moving continent and my PC was out of action. The frequency of wildcards appearing is controlled in code I’m afriad, however the Wildshots.txt file can be changed. Wherever it says [CHANCE] and has a value underneath you can alter it. A lower number is very rare and a higher number is much more frequent. Don’t know if this helps.
December 4th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Just a heads up about a rare bug that can sometimes occur:
If you get an error message that says “Error loading bitmap Data/graphics/title/snapshots/lady_pic_-36553975.png” you can fix it as follows:
- Go to your C Drive via My Computer
- Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire\
- Note that Application Data is a “Hidden Folder”. If you don’t know how to show hidden folders then please go here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=192
- Right Click FairwaySolitaire.ini and click Open With then choose NotePad or wordpad.
- Find the line that says PROFILE NAME= and delete everything after the = sign.
- Save the file.
- Reload the game. It should load properly but you will be on a profile with no name. You can use the Player Manager to create a new player but you cannot choose your old player because the profile is corrupted unfortunately. I think this may occur due to a virus killer or something interfering with the game on rare occasions.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Some people have reported losing the sound in the game, even if they restart it.
This is because sometimes the sound driver goes wrong and the game sets a parameter that means it doesn’t try to use sound again.
To fix it on a PC do this (XP only, not Vista):
1) Reboot your PC (important because the sound driver needs to be restarted).
2) Go into My Computer and double click your C Drive.
3) C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire
4) Note that Application Data is a hidden folder. To view it you must click Tools/Folder Options/View and then select “Show hidden files and folders” and then click OK.
4) Open FairwaySolitaire.ini with Notepad. (if you double click it, it should open automatically)
5) Find the line that says SOUND DRIVER=None and change it so that it says SOUND DRIVER=FreeAudio
6) Save the file and reload the game, it should have sound!
Here’s the fix for Mac users:
1) Reboot your Mac (important because the sound driver needs to be restarted).
2) User Finder to look at your Hard Drive.
3) Go into Users/Shared/Grey Alien Games/Fairway Solitaire/
4) Open FairwaySolitaire.ini with TextEdit.
5) Find the line that says SOUND DRIVER=None and change it so that it says SOUND DRIVER=FreeAudio
6) Save the file and reload the game, it should have sound!
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Hello,
That fix you listed for the error loading bitmap bug states to alter a line in the unwelmel file. I don’t have an unwelmel file in the fairway solitaire folder. All I have in there is: 1-profiles folder, 2-best.dat file, 3-errorlog.txt file, and 4-fairway solitaire.ini file. Any help resolving this issue will be greatly appreciated.
I’ve completed the game a few times and this is my 3rd profile with no problems up to this point. (except for the sound driver issue which I resolved thanx to your post, so thanx again for that one!)
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Hi Dean, sorry that was an error in the instruction that I’ve fixed. You need to edit the FairwaySolitaire.ini file.
Glad you like the game and have enjoyed playing it so many times.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Thanks a lot for the update. That did the trick! Any prospects of a Fairway Solitaire 2? Thanks again.
Dean
April 17th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Hi Dean, there is some demand for a sequel and it would be cool to make one but I’m not sure it will happen in the foreseeable future. Have you tried Unwell Mel my latest game? Also I’m about to start a new game so keep an eye out for that around Christmas.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
hi! i think fairway solitaire rocks!
cept i get really frustrated whenever i try to start the game, or when i pause the game to look at my internet browser/chat windows. because when i try to open/go back to the game, my screen goes black for a few seconds, then returns to a view of whatever window i was looking at (i.e. say i’m looking at my chat window, then i try to go back to the game, but the screen will turn black then return to viewing my chat window instead of showing me the game. and i have to try several times before it works)…
is there a reason why this happens? i though i’d play the game in non-fullscreen mode, but that doesn’t work either coz somehow i can’t click cards that are towards the sides of the screen (my cursor goes out of the game window before i even reach the cards that are near the sides of the screen).
if there’s a way to resolve this, i’d really really like to know! thanks!
(and again, great game!)
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 am
Hi Yuki, I’m glad that you like the game so much and thanks for your comments. So are you playing the game on a PC or Mac? You should be able to task swap to other games, this has been tested on many systems, but perhaps there are some specific hardware or driver combinations it doesn’t work that well on (like yours unfortunately). I can’t offer any immediate solution I’m afraid. As for when playing in Windowed mode that sounds like the game has lost track of where the game window is on the desktop and so the mouse pointer in-game game doesn’t tie up with the normal mouse pointer. This sometimes happens on Macs and I’m looking into a fix. If you move the window around you may find a place where the cursors go back in sync…
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
hey, thanks for the reply!
(tt was fast! haha!)
oh, i’m playing on a PC… and argh if it’s a driver problem
my laptop’s pretty new too! guess maybe it just wasn’t meant for computer games or something… i’ll try moving the window around in window mode and see if it makes things better ^^
thanks once again!
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
(sry for posting again so soon), just wanted to say that i’ve tried playing in windowed mode again, and it works now! maybe it was just my computer acting up the last time i tried windowed mode.
also, though playing in a smaller window is just slightly less fun than playing fullscreen, i don’t seem to have a problem changing between game windows now, so that’s a good thing! so yep, problem solved, as long as i play in windowed mode ^^ thanks!
June 4th, 2009 at 4:55 am
@yuki: Cool, glad it worked out! Thanks for replying.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
When I try to start fairway solitaire I get this message: failed to save file fairwaysolitaire.ini Can you help ?
June 18th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Hi Lucie, I’ve emailed you about this.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Hi, I use to play on another pc, but had to get that one fixed. I am now on another and went to my account and signed in and downloaded Fairway solitaire again. It says that it downloads correctly, but when I go to play it says error 1014 Unable to calulate tex size. I love this game and really want to get it running. Thank you so much
July 11th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Hi Sherry, that error sounds like your video card cannot handle a texture size of 1024×1024. This basically means that you need to get a more powerful video card or a new PC. The game does not require a very powerful video card so your PC may be quite old or have a strange video card in it. I hope that this advice is useful.
July 12th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Hi, I bought this game and absolutely love it!!! Its so much fun. I love the announcers. When I first played I laughed at their comments. Its a great game but…. I’ve been stuck on Paradise Island forever. I collect all my irons and use them when I get stuck to continue on or when I get close to finishing but I can’t get enough money. I’m wondering, is the key to this course getting perfect scores in almost every course? Please any tips or hints would be great. Thanks.
July 12th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Hi Barb, glad you like the game so much. There are some tips on the Big Fish Games Forum here: http://forums.bigfishgames.com/forums/show/272.page
Basically, winning is part luck and part skill. You need to use your irons very carefully to only make long runs, don’t waste them on short runs. Those long runs will boost your money by a lot at the end of the level.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Hello
Hope u an help. Just to start I love this game, It works fine on my computer but on my parents computer it has no sound, I’ve tried your suggestion and changed the sound driver to free audio and saved it but each time I clise the config txt the sound driver goes back to none.
please help
July 29th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Just a general point as I get asked this a lot: If you need to transfer your save games from an old computer to a new computer you can do this on PCs:
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire (on XP), or C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games\Fairway Solitaire (on Vista). Both paths are hidden so you’ll need to google how to show hidden paths (or see the comments above actually). Anyway copy everything from within that folder to the new PC.
July 29th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Hi Jason, so there are 3 possible sound drivers you can use:
FreeAudio (note that there is no space!)
DirectSound (note that there is no space!)
OpenAL Generic Software (yes there are spaces in this one)
If none of them work then I’m afraid that there must be a sound card incompatibility on the system. Please let me know how you get on.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:19 am
thanks I will try this and let u know like I said I can’t get the configuration to save even though it overwrites.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Hello, I just tried to change the number of long drives needed to win a course and I am getting an error message that says “error loading file data/levels/courses the golf academy.txt” when I try to log on again. Please help!
October 10th, 2009 at 2:16 am
Hi Rachael, I’m sorry you’ve had this problem. It sounds like you accidentally messed up the file. Email me the broken file (see the Contact page for my email address) and I’ll send you a fixed one.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Ok thank you. I just sent it.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Hi, I’m on the Jungle Falls level and it says I need to win 22000 plus the 16k+ purse. Can you explain how that works? I know I can earn a bonus by completing the course I think under the course par, but how can I use strategy to win this level? I’m just not understanding how I can earn enough money to pass this level since all I seem to earn is about 2 or 3 thousand dollars, tops. What am I doing wrong? Thank you!!!
October 27th, 2009 at 2:08 am
Hi Momo, so you need to earn $22000 including the purse of $16330 (you should have the special item that boosts the purse by 15% by now). To win the purse you must finish the course under par, so with a score of -1 or less e.g. -2, -3 etc. That means you need to earn $5670 on the course without the purse, and when the purse is added to it you’ll get $22000. Hope that makes sense. Good luck.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
When I try to start fairway solitaire I get this message: failed to save file fairwaysolitaire.ini Can you help ?
December 8th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Hi Monique, I’m sorry to hear that you are having this problem. Where did you buy the game from? Big Fish Games? Their tech support may be able to help you. The error sounds like a permissions problem. Like the game was installed under one user profile and is being played under another, something like that, although that should actually work. Uninstalling and reinstalling may well help because the permissions should be reset to the current user. Is this on a PC or Mac by the way and also did the game ever work before?
February 8th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I love this game. Hours of entertainment. Can someone explain how the gopher flush works?
February 8th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
@MJ: Very occasionally you may get a wildcard that flushes out the gopher. You will get back some cash that the gopher has stolen on the current round.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:46 am
It took several days, but I played the game to the end (I even altered some of the newspaper headlines). Now I must ask, is there a sequel? The game was Fun! Fun! Fun! The best part were the announcers. Great voice talent!
February 11th, 2010 at 5:02 am
Glad you enjoyed it! Several days is quite quick! A sequel would be great but it’s up to the people at BFG if they want to make on. Maybe…
One of the announcers, the one you don’t here very often, is John Cutter, the designer of the game.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:34 am
love this game l am just drawn to it when is a nother one comming out kep up the good worl
March 28th, 2010 at 7:45 am
This is the second time I hear about this Fairway Solitaire game, I think I’m going to give it a try today then come back if I have a hard time lol
April 13th, 2010 at 11:43 am
I have a problem… When I try to start fairway solitaire I get this message: Could not create file ‘C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games/Fairway Solitaire/profiles/Jasmine.dat
April 13th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Hi, I have the same problem that lucie had … I have the — cant save file fairwaysolitaire.ini — problem please I’ve been trying to fix it for about 4 days now ….. Help me please !!!
April 20th, 2010 at 3:49 am
Hi Jazzman and Dumby, sorry for he delay in responding I was out of the country.
OK so I’ve heard of this problem before, it seems to be a permissions problem. One possible solution may be to copy the contents of the C:\ProgramData\Grey Alien Games/Fairway Solitaire folder to a safe location, then delete the Grey Alien Games folder (don’t do this if you have any other games of mine such as Holiday Bonus or the Wizard of Oz, as you’ll lose their save data.) Then run the game again. It should create that folder again with the correct permissions and load up but without any profiles. Exit the game and copy your backed up files back into the Fairway Solitaire folder and hopefully it’ll work OK. Please report back if this works for you.
Another potential solution is making sure that every folder and file within (and including) the Grey Alien Games folder has a security setting that allows everyone full access. The game creates the folder like that but somehow on some systems it seems to get changed by Windows at some point so that access is denied.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
When I try to start fairway solitaire I get the following message: failed to save file fairwaysolitaire.ini
Is there a fix for this problem?
May 14th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Hi Jeanny, yes, please read the instructions directly above your comment. Also can you please tell me if your version of Windows is non-English e.g. German, French or something? As I recently discovered that the .ini problem occurs on non-English versions of Windows and have developer a proper fix that I aim to roll out to Big Fish Games soon.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
I changed some goals in the last levels. Now I’m in the one before the last and the game always gets stuck in the third of nine holes. Thanks for the help.
June 4th, 2010 at 3:49 am
Hi Butterfliege, try getting the latest version of the game V1.04 from Big Fish games.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I’ve got already the latest version V1.04. from Big Fish games.
June 5th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Hi Butterfliege, hmm how is it getting stuck exactly? (what course and what is it doing when it gets stuck?) Thx. Perhaps the course file is broken since you modified it. If you email me I can send you a new one or did you back up the old one before you changed it?
June 5th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Wow. That’s strange. It usually happened in Barnyard Bunkers in the third hole. I was able to clear the cards on the right side and the cards in the middle were uncovered but nothing happened when I clicked on them. But now that I got all the cards on the right and after that all the cards on the left removed, I was able to remove the cards in the middle as well. Sorry for the weird explanation but I think my problem is solved. Thank you so much for your help.
June 29th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I have not seen anyone else address this concern. When playing timed courses, the games says I have (ex) 128 extra seconds, but when the score counter comes on it only gives me (ex) 88. Can you explain this?
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:17 am
Sandy: Note that the stop watch displaying your remaining time has a colon in it. 1:28 is one minute and 28 seconds. 60 seconds + 28 seconds = 88 seconds. Hope this helps!
August 10th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
how do you get through Peppertree? i have been on it for ages and cant earn more than $20,000????
thanks
November 8th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
I can’t seem to find any help on unlocking items in the Golf Shop, anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!!
February 25th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
I tried to fix that game as you instructed, but didn’t work. What am i doing wrong?
February 26th, 2011 at 1:08 am
Hi bobbyjus, you’ll have to give me more detail on what you were trying to fix for me to help you. Feel free to email me. The email address is on the contact page.
March 7th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
Here are Mac instructions for fixing the lady_pic error:
1) User Finder to look at your Hard Drive.
2) Go into Users/Shared/Grey Alien Games/Fairway Solitaire/
3) Open FairwaySolitaire.ini with TextEdit.
4) Find the line that says PROFILE NAME= and delete everything after the = sign.
5) Save the file
6) Reload the game. It should load properly but you will be on a profile with no name. You can use the Player Manager to create a new player but you cannot choose your old player because the profile is corrupted unfortunately.
March 13th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Love This Game. Tough in various tourneys but finally made it through. The toughest were Mystery Madness – wanted to throw away my computer, often. Next wasn’t very hard. But The Baron was also hard but not nearly as hard as Mystery Madness.
- I have version 1.02 and will probably get the newest version, But 1.02 is really not so bad except for mystery madness…
- It got boring without games to make me think – using hidden cards, etc. Rather boring to me at times but still Love the Game.
- I did have a glitch several times in Mystery Madness where it would not let me click on a card in far right column but i just kept on playing. Also happened once or twice in The Baron. And throughout the game – a certain times when I clicked – screen would minimize – i would just click on it again & screen would go back to full screen – not losing anything.
- But This Is One Game I Can Keep Playing Again & Again because the ‘courses’ are so different, you never what you are going to be playing next.
March 13th, 2011 at 7:00 pm
oh yes, the Wild Shot is really not so bad. If someone doesn’t like them – just click and keep going. Don’t hassle over it. Just play for Fun.
March 13th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Was wondering, maybe my game minimizing may be because I have windows 7 or maybe not.
- I also finished without using any cheats listed above. But now that I’ve found them, I may change Mystery Madness…….
March 13th, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Glad you liked the game BettyM! Some of those card clicking bugs were fixed in later versions I believe. The minimizing bug is new though, it may be due to other software on your computer demanding screen time, like a virus killer.
March 13th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Worth knowing about Windows 7 thx, I’ll look out for other reports of it.
March 27th, 2011 at 4:06 am
To find out how to show hidden files and folders on Vista go here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial130.html
May 2nd, 2011 at 4:35 pm
HI!
) as evidence.
Just wanted to thank you for the tip; it’s not so difficult to “cheat” in this game, according to your piece of advice, this kind of “cheat” is a bit of common in games using console, or any type of config. you can edit through notepad. I should have done this before I googled the solution and found you.
I modified all of the levels with Excel, and the game is now much easy to go through. I’m sure most of the people did the same thing, just that I didn’t wanted to go over the whole list of comments.
Anyway, I’m sure that the game without this “help” is nice to play, but, at the same time, players don’t like to loose in front of it. You have 109 comment (including me
Regards.
Delilah
May 2nd, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Thanks for your comment Delilah. I didn’t actually design the levels, someone at Big Fish Games did. I wish they were a bit easier too.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
I tried your code, and I can edit the file, but I cannot save the changes.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
I am running Windows Vista Home Edition.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Disregard that. I got it working. I just had to go in & give myself full control of the CourseList file.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
@Jason: Yes you normally need to run the editor as administrator. Did you right click the file and edit the security properties instead to give yourself full access?
August 2nd, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I have this come up when I try to start the game! I have been playing for over a year now & am praying the game hasn’t left me for good!
: failed to save file fairwaysolitaire.ini
Thanks
Jo
August 3rd, 2011 at 12:03 am
Hi Jo, it sounds like the permissions on the save data folder have changed for some reason. Send me an email letting me know which operating system you are using (e.g. Windows XP, or Vista, or 7, or Mac OSX) and I’ll see what I can do to help.
August 9th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
It started working again, & it even remembered me & I didn’t have to start from the beginning, but it hasn’t made Jungle Falls course any easier to get thru
Thanks anyway!
Jo
October 10th, 2011 at 6:26 am
Hey. I’m running Windows 7 on an HP Pavilion. It will let me open the file, edit it, but not change it. I’ve tried changing the ‘read-only” status, but it doesn’t ever appear to save as not read-only. I’m admin and the only one who uses my computer. I’ve even figured out how to edit the security settings,so the admin has full control, but it still only registers as ‘read-only’
October 10th, 2011 at 7:21 am
Hi Jeni, which file are you editing? Courselist.csv or FairwaySolitaire.ini? They are in different locations. Anyway, not sure why it’s ready only on your system – probably a permissions thing. If editing the ini go up to the Grey Alien Games folder and try making that non-read only and giving admin permission and also Everyone. Then do the same for the Fairway folder inside it. If editing Courselist.csv maybe the Fairway folder that BFG makes is read only or has the wrong permissions, same with the Data folder inside it.
October 12th, 2011 at 7:39 am
Thanks for your prompt reply. It’s Courselist.cvs. Do you say how to edit FairwaySolitaire.ini? I don’t see that as an option above… If I can’t edit that either, is there a way to find out if BFG is making the files read-only? I hate to bother you, but this is the only place that has offered any solutions. BFG just says, “nope, no solutions.” on it’s message boards. So, thank you for your help!
October 12th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Hi Jeni, yeah in the comments I discuss how to edit the ini for people that have had some problems. hmm strange that you can’t edit Courselist.csv. It must be to do with how BFG are installing the file on the system. One possible solution is to copy the whole of Fairway to another temporary folder and make that whole structure non-read only and set the correct permissions (to Admin and Everyone). This won’t affect your save games at all.
October 17th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Love the game. But I don’t have any money left and I just can’t get through a specific course in the classic section. Is there a cheat to have unlimited money?
Shar
October 17th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Never mind! Just found out about the mini put game under the options thnx to the bfg-forum. Got enough money now! I love this game!
October 17th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Glad you like the game Shar, although I get the feeling you may be talking about the new Fairway, not the old one that I made…
October 20th, 2011 at 11:28 am
Could be, sorry then!
November 1st, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Every since I downloaded the 1.08 game, I cannot get past the Anaconda level. I was trying to edit courselist, bit it won’t save me as an administrator. I am using Windows 7. Any ideas.
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:00 am
Hi Susan, do you mean the game crashes or something on Anaconda, or just that you can’t beat it? The difficulty has not changed, so you may just be having a bad run of cards.
As for editing courselist, have you tried this:
- find notepad (start, all programs, accessories)
- right click notepad and selecting Open as Administrator
- open up the courselist file in notepad
- edit and save the file?
That should work, or have you tried that and it’s still complaining?
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:14 pm
I just can not beat the game. I get to the last card and then it feeds me bad cards. I can get one perfect, but not 2
As to your instructions, can you dumb it down some, please? I don’t see open as administrator when I right click on notepad
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Thanks for the info Susan. I should have written Run as administrator. Is that on the pop up menu?
Also please try these instructions: http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2010/05/how-to-make-an-application-run-as-administrator-by-default-in-windows-7/
April 27th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
*CAUTION: BIG CHEAT HERE THAT MIGHT SPOIL YOUR FUN*
My 7-month old hit the keyboard randomly and I got all the irons. I played around a while and found CTRL+SHIFT+A gives all the irons. Might help a few folks who want a full bag.
*END BIG SPOILING CHEAT*
April 27th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Ha, well done. I can’t believe it took what 4 years for someone to find that
It’s a pretty big spoiler as once you know it, the game is not nearly as challenging. So use sparingly!